Hookah Bliss says stop the Hookapocrisy. Refuses to close

Hookah Bliss owner Adam Bliss knows that the North Carolina government said that there is a tobacco ban now.

Hookah bliss myspace photo

Bliss knows that he was supposed to close. But The Hookah bar on Franklin Street refuses.  Bliss sees hypocrisies and double standards to large to ignore. In fact, Bliss would appreciate a few citations and a court date if North Carolina would be so kind.

See the Tobacco ban In North Carolina isn’t really a Tobacco ban entirely.  The Herald Sun reported the details like this.

There are exemptions. But Hookah bars are not included in the exemptions.

Cigar bars are exempted.

A cigar bar that makes 60 percent of its quarterly business from alcohol sales and at-least 25 percent of its quarterly sales from cigars is exempt.

Tobacco shops in North Carolina are also exempt because Tobacco shops makes at-least 75 percent of its quarterly revenue from the sale of Tobacco and Tobacco products while not serving food or alcohol.

And outside Patio smoking seems to acceptable.

Hookah Bliss says that to stay open it may have to change the whole vibe of his bar and stop selling drinks. Bliss tells the Herald Sun that it “makes you wonder whether this law was really about tobacco or alcohol.”

Bliss seems to be arguing that the logic of a bill that is going to take him out of business is to flimsy to destroy his life work, his investments.

Bliss’s logic seems to say that if you’re going to destroy all these businesses and claim it’s a health issue, then shouldn’t the richer cigar smokers have to join in for the peoples health. And if people are gonna lose their income, it should make more sense then this why their being forced to do it.

“(The state government says) this is an employee health issue. But they automatically exempted four different types of places, and notice all those places are where the rich older males go, where the legislators are more likely to go, and they’re saying that the employees that work in the places where they like to smoke do not deserve the protection that the average employee who works in an average bar deserves.”

This is not so much about a lawsuit as about fighting a ticket on the grounds that the law is unfair,” Bliss said to the news. “We are not going to stop serving and we are not closed.”

Hookah Bliss has not yet been ticketed. Tickets are possible if the Department of health receives a complaint. The Hookah bar gets 2 warnings and then will be ticketed 200 dollars.